Historical Traceability of Nanjing Gold Foil Forging Technique

Gold foil was unearthed at the mid Shang Dynasty site in Wancheng County, Hebei Province, and at the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan Province. A jade tiger was unearthed from the tomb of Women's Hao in Anyang Yinxu, and gold foil was put on its eyes to emphasize the eyes. The clothes of the family tomb of Li Cang unearthed in Mawangdui at the beginning of the Western Han Dynasty were decorated with gold dust and gold foil pasted with gold ornaments. According to the available information, the gold foil craft in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province began in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. Southern Song Shan Qianzhi "Danyang record" and other documents have been produced in gold and silver foil and set the records of the Jin Department. During the Yuan Dynasty, the production of gold foil began in large quantities, and in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was a further development in and out. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, due to the large number of gold threads used in brocade weaving, the Nanjing gold foil industry developed rapidly in Longtan area. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were forty or fifty households engaged in the gold foil industry in Longtan area, and thirty or fifty households engaged in the production of gold thread. 1975, in the tomb of Xu Fu, the fifth grandson of Xu Da, unearthed in Taipingmen, the gold silk dress, that is, the Jinling gold silk material evidence. Tingling filial piety Jing Empress of the surface of the birthday suit is embroidered in red satin on top of the red satin is also covered with a layer of tulle, all the colors of the large lotus embroidered on top of the tulle, which is the "makeup flower yarn" traditional handmade stunts. All of the lotus flowers are trimmed with gold filigree, which shines brightly in the sunlight. This is a whole sheet of gold foil over the back, and then cut into the gold line one by one hooked out and become 1 cm wide gold foil was cut into 22 gold line, this piece of jacket with gold foil 8 meters long, the production of clothing on the **** 1.76 million to be hooked on the gold line. According to "the Imperial Palace" records: Ming and Qing dynasty imperial palaces and imperial robes and brocade used gold foil produced in jiangning. Qing East Mausoleum Cixi Mausoleum tomb inscription also recorded: "...... gold foil from Jiangning."

Legend has it that Ge Xianweng (Ge Hong) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty is the originator of the gold foil forging, and legend has it that the area around Longtan in Qixia District is the hometown of the production of gold foils, and the legend of "Immortals making gold foils" has been spreading in the households of the foil-playing households. According to the legend, Ge Xianweng and Lu Dongbin had a bet to make a golden body for the Bodhisattva, and Ge Xianweng created the technique of making gold foil when he was in a disadvantageous position, and since then, making gold foil has been handed down as a handicraft. As a matter of fact, the old people in Longtan claimed that in the past, all the families in Longtan who made gold foils worshipped Ge Xianweng's statue, offered incense in all seasons, knelt down to worship on New Year's Day, and put a hammer on the side of the incense burner to pray for God's blessing to make the foils work smoothly. From the folklore and folk worship, it is estimated that a large number of gold foils appeared in the Six Dynasties period, and the key figure was Ge Xianweng, also known as Ge Hong. During the Six Dynasties period, Buddhism was prevalent in Jinling, and the numerous temples and statues of Buddha made the industrialization of gold leaf possible. The gold foil industry in Nanjing has Ge Xianweng as its ancestor. In the old days, the Flower God Temple in Longtan used to have a shrine for the Gold Foil Guild, which honored Ge Xianweng as the ancestor of the art, and enshrined Ge Hong, a native of Jurong in the Western Jin Dynasty, whom gold foil artists revered as their forefather.

In addition, it is said that Ge Hong, a representative of Taoism in Jin Dynasty, was a native of Xiayin, north of Jurong City, not far from Longtan, and he was also a famous alchemist who unintentionally discovered the method of forging gold in the course of people's alchemy and cultivation of Taoism in the Southern Dynasty using gold, vermilion sand and andrographis. Both in Zhangzhou, Fujian Province and Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, the gold leaf industry worships Ge Xianweng as the founder of the industry. Every Ge Xianweng's birthday, incense is burned and tribute is paid, and the Ge family in the Longtan gold foil industry holds an annual clan ceremony to honor the ancestor.

According to the introduction of the old artists, Nanjing's earliest gold foil are Longtan people, there are Liu, Ge, Yin three surnames, Liu's family name to play the gold foil, Ge's family name to cut the gold foil, Yin's family name to make the gold thread. People's Republic of China **** and before the founding of the country, Longtan around the six sub-bridges, four sections of the Wei Wei have gold foil production workshop, male hammer gold foil, female weaving brocade line.